Develop An Interest In Pinterest:
3 Ways To Capitalize On The Latest Social Network Craze
By Amanda F. Batista, Associate Editor
If social networks are the popular students at school, Pinterest is the new, cool kid on the block. Founded on the idea that a “virtual pinboard” can help users organize and share their favorite things found on the web, Pinterest is a retail treasure-trove. According to comScore, Pinterest drew 11.7 million unique monthly visitors in January 2012, making it the third-fastest-growing web site since December 2011.
Moreover, Pinterest drove nearly 4% of all web traffic referrals in January, according to content-sharing firm Shareaholic. That’s more than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined.
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To help retailers get in on the sharing action, I suggest the following three basic tips that can help retailers garner more customer interest, based on my personal experience using Pinterest.
- Make Sure Customers Aren’t “Board” To Death — Although the foundation of Pinterest is pinning to boards, retailers can step outside the box and create boards of images that put a face to the brand. For instance, create a board with your executive’s favorite items from the spring collection, or the products that you’re using at home. This helps customers identify with you on a personal level, and on a Pinterest level.
- Empower Users To Aspire — Pinterest is one mish-mosh of community commodities. From the things users just need to have (new spring pumps, anyone?) to those aspirational images that are merely out-of-reach, such as shiny, new, stainless steel kitchen appliances, the online community is a goldmine of “gimme gimme.” The mindset of a Pinterest user is simple: look, want, love and aspire. Keep this in mind when posting new images — and encourage the community to pin products across a bunch of different user boards.
- Integrate To Instigate The Sale — As with other social networks and shopping channels, retailers have a great opportunity to integrate Pinterest into their product sharing functionality to immediately enable users to pin an image. For example, JewelMint, an eTailer and jewelry recommendation site, customizes its assortment for users and enables visitors to pin products to their Pinterest pin boards directly from the product page.
Similar to a digital scrapbook, Pinterest allows shoppers to easily gather and admire the products and brands they know and love, and on their own terms. Although retailers still are determining optimal engagement strategies via Pinterest, the site creates a promising opportunity for shoppers to engage with inventory on a more intimate level.
At Retail TouchPoints, we have reported on Pinterest with great interest — as part of an overall Social Commerce feature, Parts I and II, as well as in an Infographic.
Follow Amanda on Twitter: @AmandaF_Batista
